Maroc - dailynews.co.za - News - 20/Aug 12:19

ANC pledges to regain support in KZN after major election loss

The African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula has said that the party will work hard to regain its lost support in KwaZulu-Natal after a notable defeat in the May 29 elections.Analysts have suggested that a major shake-up is essential for the party to regain power.Mbalula made these remarks during a media briefing in KwaZulu-Natal following a two-day National Working Committee visit to review the results of the May 2024 general elections.The ANC in the province lost votes at the polls, pulling a meagre 17% of votes thus scoring only 14 seats in an 80-seat chamber, a drop from 54% in previous elections.The newcomer uMkhonto weSizwe party, secured 45% of the voter support in the province, while the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) earned 18% of the votes.Reflecting on the general elections, Mbalula acknowledged that the ANC lost votes in the province but expressed confidence that the party will make a strong comeback.“We are confident that we will come back, because we have energy and we have foresight to understand the problem and how to tackle it,” he said.Mbalula blamed the party's failure to gain more votes on Zuma’s MK party.“We know what went wrong, Jacob Zuma formed a political party and challenged the ANC, and won the majority in the province. The numbers that he got was the ANC constituency.”Despite showing the ANC dust in the province's general elections, the MK party did not secure a spot in the coalition government, which is led by IFP's Thami Ntuli, the current premier.Mbalula said the ANC will make a strong comeback, citing that they have plans to tackle public concerns, with service delivery being a key focus.“As the economy grows, we will do what we said we will do in our manifesto that will restore the confidence of people in the ANC. We have seriously lost ground in KZN because of Jacob Zuma and we need to reclaim that lost ground here in this province.In addition, he has said they will implement action plans throughout the province, focusing on governance and restructuring the party.He said that now is not the time for disputes and blame, but rather a time to understand what went wrong.“We did go down and come back very strong, but it's not a guarantee that we will ever come back. You might be right that we are not going to come back, but it's going to depend on what we do as a party as we are struggling to come back in Western Cape.”Political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast said that the ANC's loss in the polls was due to Zuma's departure from the party, citing that the party's numbers declined following his exit.“Some of us when we were following the elections and when the results were coming through bit by bit we knew by looking at the performance of the ANC, that it was not going to do well because of the poor performance in KZN, and it would do badly on a large scale,” he told the public broadcaster.Breakfast said it is important for the ANC to do a major shake up in the province if they want to bounce back to power.IOL Politics